


under the water

by macha



Series: Georgia on My Mind [30]
Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-27
Updated: 2008-12-27
Packaged: 2017-10-18 12:00:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/188682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macha/pseuds/macha





	under the water

__

### C06.01.03 Stealth Wars:  
in the heart, we are water.

and the name of the tale is:

  
under the water

  
where did you learn?

Darla could sail. she taught me knots; that was quite useful.

i bet it was. i can think of a few nice slayer applications. guess i should have been a girl scout. learned more in prison than i ever learned outside. not always the best stuff to learn, you bet.

she says she always sailed. long before daddy was born. in the Dead Sea before it died, isn't that a funny thought? she still smells of salt sometimes, and seaweed. though sometimes they call her the Lady of the Lake.

how come?

her element was always water. not the fisherman, but the fish, wiggling and wriggling off every hook. but anyway she says she owns the hero's sword, and the horse he rides in on, too.

somehow i never think of her as getting her hands dirty.

she's full of surprises. but most everyone she's surprised didn't live long enough to tell.

how long has it been, since the Dead Sea went dry?

she used to tell me a bedtime story, when i was smaller. about how the Red Sea really came to be red.

do i want to hear it?

probably not. before i came here, i sailed on a ship that was called The Flying Dutchman. and after a while, she came to call on me.

stopped at a port, then?

no, it was out in the ocean.

isn't it supposed to be hard to get off that boat?

i don't know. i quite liked it there. but she said our gowns were going to mildew. she was particular about that. tell you a secret?

sure, i'll be quiet.

like the grave? though graves aren't quiet, are they? all those maggots, nibbling.

guess you're the expert there.

i think she mostly liked to watch them walk the plank. they were more afraid of her than of the water. she roped the captain to the wheel, just like the movies. after awhile, there were just the two of us, and the captain, and the rats of course. when the ship sailed into Bremen, she said to me, 'ready, sailor?', and lifted her skirts to sidle past the harbourmaster with a smile.

and you?

when i was just a girl, there were rivermen. they made their living from the water. rough men, not sailors exactly. but they knew the currents, and the tides. they fished for bodies, tangled up under the bridges. and one day, one of them was mine.

you remember that?

i remember waking up alone, men all around me. they had already stripped the body. i hadn't any money, just the crucifix. it burned. and when i opened my eyes, they tried to run. they didn't run fast enough.

i thought you had to be buried.

nobody bothered much. the Thames was almost solid with refuse; they were always shovelling sediment into it to keep the waste from floating. so in London usually we just tipped the bodies in any old how. one little splash and all the evidence was gone. a lot of hungry things lived in that river. including me.

did they come back for you?

oh yes. i waited for them. Angelus always had a plan. he didn't like to be thwarted.

but Dru, you could have... maybe -

who do you think would have helped me, then?

what did you think, before they came?

that i'd been wicked.

how?

not wanting to live, because. you know. and i'd prayed for angels. well, but then... one came. i thought perhaps he was the answer to those prayers.


End file.
